Related Caye Caulker Favorites Tips

Favorite thing: A couple of blocks up toward the Split from our Trends hotel, on Middle Street, is where two cyber cafes are located, practically across the street from each other. We only tried the Caye Caulker Cyber Cafe because it was clean, had fast machines and was quite reasonably priced, usually costing us about US$2.50-5.00 for the use of two computers long enough to check on and write a few emails. They also have a deal whereby, if you stay on longer than 15 minutes or so (I cannot remember the exact times) you get a free drink from their attached bar. These drinks keep coming the longer you stay on-line, maybe they are hoping you will eventually slump over the machine and leave it permanently connected! Although we never took advantage of this offer, their bar did look quite 'posh'!

Favorite thing: Caye Caulker is a really off the beaten path type of island, barely visible on the map as you can see, located in the Caribbean Sea 21 miles north of Belize City. It is one of more than 200 cayes located along the coast and off-shore barrier reefs of Belize, and it has slowly been 'discovered' by tourists in the past decade or so (especially since the airstrip was built in 1992). With it's palm-fringed beaches, great diving and snorkeling possibilities, sandy streets and no cars or trucks, I can see how a person might just decide that this is good enough for me! It can most quickly be reached by a 10-15 minute airline flight or, most cheaply, by a 35-40 minute water taxi ride from Belize City. From Caye Caulker, day excursions can be arranged for either enjoying the water all around you or combining a boat trip with tours of Mayan ruins located on the mainland.

Favorite thing: Since I don't bother with owning a cellular phone, I find that it is always handy to have a local phone card to avoid the hassles of having the correct change on hand should you need to make a call for some reason. Not knowing how often we would use the card, I bought the lowest denomination possible (BZ$5 or US$2.50) and, in the end, we actually used it up and bought another one which ended being half-used. They are the typical scratch the back strip and use the PIN on the card in conjunction with an '800' number. The cards can be purchased at various convenient places anywhere in Belize and, since the whole country is in the same area code, there are no long distance charges. This was very useful as I phoned from San Pedro to the Belmopan area looking for accommodations for that evening and another day made calls from Belmopan to Hopkins for the same reason.

Favorite thing: They have really good pastries and its much cheaper than going out for breakfast. You haven’t lived till you’ve tried the cinnamon buns We managed to get some freshly squeezed orange juice from Chan’s to go with them.

Favorite thing: If you walk straight up from the pier you will find Chan’s on your left hand side on middle street (as far as I remember). You will find everything you need here (or at least the largest selection of things on the island).

Favorite thing: Lots of large, black frigatebirds with forked tails are always in the background here, soaring overhead. They have up to a seven-foot wingspan and are known for harassing other birds and stealing their food, which resulted in their nickname, Man’o’War birds. Some have a little white underneath, and males have a red pouch at the throat. They’re so common that the Belize Audobon Society has a frigate bird chasing a red-footed booby on its official seal.

Pelicans, herons, and egrets are also abundant.

Favorite thing: The diversity of people in Belize, and their friendliness, is definitely one of my favorite things that makes this country stand out from other tropical destinations. On Caye Caulker the majority of locals are black Creoles, with a minority of Mestizos (Hispanics). This is the reverse of on the mainland, where they also have about 10% Mayan Indians and small communities of British expats (since this used to be British Honduras), Garifuna, and Mennonites. We saw two Mennonites on Caye Caulker - boy did they stand out in a crowd! : ) Then of course you have the tourists. Nine years ago most of the visitors were American; today, most are European. We saw or heard travellers from France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, England, Canada, and the U.S.

Favorite thing: I must say, this is NOT my favorite thing: you can’t drink the tap water in Caye Caulker – it’s a bit salty. You'll notice this in the shower. You’ll have to buy bottled water to drink. If you’re here for more than a day or two, you can buy a 5-gallon jug of water for $5BZ ($2.50US) - our hotel manager called the water guy and he delivered it for us. We had to give him a $15BZ deposit on the bottle, but we got that back when we left and returned the bottle to him. We ended up purchasing two of these 5-gallon jugs, and the first one was great, but the second one still had a hint of salt to it.

Fondest memory: At least the water AROUND Caye Caulker in the ocean is a beautiful color, brilliant turquoise with patches of mint green. Gorgeous!